A married California couple was arrested by US Marshals in Mexico on homicide charges more than eight months after a teacher suffered a fatal beating in Fresno County.
Geoffrey Bernardi, 37, who taught career technical education with the Clovis Unified School District, was attacked on Dec. 18, 2025 on a canal in Clovis, dying of his injuries two days later.
The evidence led investigators to Antonio Garcia, 40, of Tulare, and Misty Gomez, 32, of Dinuba, who both found living in Mexico.
Authorities revealed that Gomez had been dating Bernardi at the time of the attack while she was still married to Garcia.
Bernardi’s mother, Erin Adams, said her son had met Gomez online and dated her for just two months, completely unaware that she was already married.
“[Gomez] was a very, very accomplished liar,” Adams told YourCentralValley.com.
“I can’t even imagine hitting somebody. And to be so violent and to be so conniving and to have a husband that my son didn’t know that she had… she lied.”
Investigators said Gomez was the only witness to the attack and described the suspect as wearing a black puffer jacket with a hoodie. In January of this year, detectives determined that the attack was not random and had identified a person of interest.
After Bernardi’s death, Gomez took her two children from a previous relationship and laid low in Mexico, authorities said. Clovis police said that 9-year-old Skye Mason and 12-year-old Castiel Hernandez had been missing from the City of Dinuba since April.
The children are currently in the custody of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (National System for Integral Family Development) in Michoacan, ABC 7 reported.
Both girls have different fathers and will now be reunited with family with the assistance of Child Protective Services.
Both Garcia and Gomez were extradited to the US last week and booked in the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County on$1 million bail before being transported to the downtown jail in Fresno.
